The present invention is method and system for software license management. Many other software license management systems are taught or known in the prior art, but each has their own respective shortcomings on which the present invention improves or eliminates in addition to the additional elements taught by the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,294 discloses a license management system for software which drives a single computer or a plurality of computers including: an application program for requesting a decision of the number of license which it needs to drive itself and for receiving issuance of the license; a number of license decision unit for determining the necessary number of licenses in accordance with the request from the application program; and a license management unit for issuing the number of licenses which was determined by the number of license decision unit. According to this invention, it is possible to provide a license management system enabling issuance of a license in which the sales strategy of a software maker was considered.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,574,612 a method and system for providing flexibility to a license management system is disclosed. This license management system permits the concurrent use of multiple copies of a software program over a network comprising a plurality of client workstations, each client workstation having a copy of the software program installed thereon requiring an authorization from one of a plurality of license servers each time the software program is used. For security reasons, the license management system requires that at least the integer majority of the plurality of license servers is active at any time. This method and system allows a change to the number of license servers, but imposes several limitations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,712 teaches a software application wherein the verification and license check out functions which are normally performed by a license server of a network software license system. The encrypted license information is contained in a license token, and is sorted in the database controlled by the license server. In contrast to the prior art where the license server either grants or denies the request after verifying the user's credentials, the license server here finds the correct license token for the software application and transmits the license token to the licensing library.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,143 allows for the electronic management and enforcement of software licenses used only in a network or non-network environment to facilitate product licensing and upgrades. Further, it only accommodates the use of compact disc read-only memory (CD ROM) product distribution.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,412 teaches an improved software license management system wherein a license server initializes a license database by receiving a package license description that includes component license descriptions for component software products in a package. A client computer system can request a license for a component product in a package. A license is granted to the client when the client is allowed to receive the license according to a license policy.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,145 teaches a software licensing system includes a license generator located at a licensing clearinghouse and at least one license server and multiple clients located at a company or entity. When a company wants a software license, it sends a purchase request (and appropriate fee) to the licensing clearinghouse. The license generator at the clearinghouse creates a license pack containing a set of one or more individual software licenses.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,260,141 teaches a software license control system based on independent software registration servers. The registration servers are open to all software manufacturers. On user's computer, a software product asks the user software license control program whether the user has a usage license for the software product. The user license control program checks the license file, received from a software registration server, and answers the software product.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 20020091645 discloses a licensing system comprising an application information database into which a license management server machine stores a license menu containing a function, a term and a number of times and the like for which usage may be approved with respect to software to be usage-approved. A user terminal is capable of accessing the application information database via an Internet network. Therefore, according to this system o, a software license granting technique is provided in which a range of software licensing choices is expanded so that various user needs can be met even with the same single software, and unlawful copying of the software that is approved for use by the user can be eliminated.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 20050102240 discloses a software licensing system includes a license generator located at a licensing clearinghouse and at least one license server and multiple clients located at a company or entity. When a company wants a software license, it sends a purchase request and appropriate fee to the licensing clearinghouse. The license generator at the clearinghouse creates a license pack containing a set of one or more individual software licenses. The license generator digitally signs the license pack and encrypts it with the license server's public key. The license server is responsible for distributing the software licenses from the license pack to individual clients. When a client needs a license, the license server determines the client's operating system platform and grants the appropriate license. The license server digitally signs the software license and encrypts it using the client's public key. The license is stored locally at the client.
Because the system of the present invention is designed to license software it is a natural target for anyone who wants the software and does not want to pay for it. Because this software is a target of “hackers” it must have defenses beyond the ordinary for protecting itself against those who seek to destroy its ability to perform its job of guarding software usage rights as defined by the software company that employs the system of the present invention to safeguard their software. To this end the system of the present invention will always employ the strongest security schema available to it based on the circumstances of the environment in which it is running. To ensure the highest degree of protection the system is designed with multiple layers of security that act independently of the others. While no system is completely secure, the intent of this design is to make the cost of breaking into the system so high as to be impractical.
Therefore it is an objective of the present invention to teach a License Management System (LMS) is, in a best mode, comprised of three components. These three components are the License Client (LC), the License Server (LS) and the Network License Manager (NLM).
It is another objective of the present invention to teach a License Management System (LMS) that, in an alternative embodiment only requires a License Client (LC) and License Server (LS) to properly function.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to teach a License Management System (LMS) further comprised of a Network License Manager (NLM) component that exists to facilitate and manage concurrent license usage and issuance.